Qatar – The Chandelier and the Orient

It is the emirate of all fantasies. Qatar is both constantly in the forefront of the media scene and yet very little known to the general public. Culturally and politically, Qatar is an ambiguous synthesis between East and West. Attached to the Ottoman Empire for centuries, then under British protectorate, it gained its independence in 1971 and had to deal with a complex geopolitical situation which made it very vulnerable. How did this small country manage to hold its own and ensure global influence? This is the question that attempts to answer Qatar. The chandelier and the orient.

For five weeks, and before the opening of a football World Cup subject to many controversies, The Cross The Weekly invites you to discover the first chapters of this documentary comic which returns, in a way that is both distanced and striking, to the origin and development of this emirate in the spotlight.

Designed by Emmanuel Picq (Stories of Lyon, Ed. Lyon Capitale), it is scripted by Victor Valentini. Doctor of political science, lecturer at Sciences Po Lyon, he specializes in foreign policy in the Gulf region and notably wrote the thesis « Qatar put to the test by international relations », in partnership with the Institut des Advanced National Defense Studies (IHEDN) in Paris. The album will appear in bookstores on November 2 at Éditions Delcourt (96 p., €17.50).